YMW CH 27

This is bad

“Who said I liked it?” Cen Wu’s eyes widened as he immediately refuted, “I don’t like it at all!”

As he spoke, he pulled out his phone, quickly found a random contact, and deleted them without hesitation.

Then, he shoved the phone toward Xie Guilan. “See? I… I deleted him. I never said I liked him.”

Truthfully, Cen Wu had no idea who he had just deleted. The original owner of his account had added way too many people, so he couldn’t even recognize which one was the guy in the suit.

But whatever. Xie Guilan wouldn’t know the difference either.

At first, Cen Wu had considered going all in and deleting everyone, but with thousands of contacts, that would take forever.

Besides, if he was being honest, he kind of couldn’t bear to do it.

Xie Guilan glanced at the phone, his expression colder than a snow-covered mountain. However, his tone remained stubborn, as if still unconvinced. “Still seems like you’re envious.”

Cen Wu: “…”

His brain was a mess. How had things suddenly escalated to this? Why was Xie Guilan even considering this path?

He had spent two years at Blue Night—surely, he wasn’t this naive. He had to know exactly what this line of work entailed.

Just imagining Xie Guilan putting on a sweet, coy smile to please someone for money, letting people take advantage of him—it made Cen Wu’s chest tighten with frustration.

At that moment, he was so mad he wanted to punch Xie Guilan.

Cen Wu took a deep breath, reminding himself that violence wasn’t the answer. Instead, he placed a hand on Xie Guilan’s arm as gently as possible and said, “Why… why do you even care about them?”

Xie Guilan lowered his eyes, gazing at Cen Wu’s face. His eyes always had a misty quality, framed by long lashes that curled outward. His lips were soft and a pale shade of red—delicate and beautiful, yet carrying an air of indifference.

Now, he was leaning in, speaking in a soft voice, trying to convince him not to care about other men. It almost felt like he was reassuring a lover, the one he loved most in his long line of fleeting affections, urging him to be the bigger person.

The amusement in Xie Guilan’s eyes instantly faded. Without another word, he picked up the tray and walked off to deliver drinks to a booth.

That night, when Cen Wu got home, he was still on edge. He lay in bed, tossing and turning, unable to sleep. Eventually, he gave up, sat up, and pulled out his phone to look up information about male models.

The search results flooded in.

**#18-year-old innocent high school boy tricked into selling a kidney#

#Inside the underground bar scene: High school student, heartbroken, drops out in despair#

#No one ever saw my thorns: A lonely boy’s road to ruin#**

Cen Wu: “…”

Great. Any hope he had left just died.

The next day at school, dark circles clung to his eyes from staying up all night. Lu Wang took one look at him and nearly jumped in shock. “What the hell did you do last night?” he asked, turning to stare.

Cen Wu just shook his head, too drained to explain.

Meanwhile, Xie Guilan had just received a scholarship. Plus, the chemistry competition prize money—thirty thousand yuan—was distributed fairly quickly each year. Though the competition wasn’t over yet, he was confident he’d win.

For now, he wasn’t strapped for cash, so he had been skipping his part-time shifts at noon, choosing instead to eat at the school cafeteria and catch up on sleep in the classroom. On nights he didn’t go to Blue Night, he even managed to attend evening study sessions.

At lunchtime, Cen Wu had his old butler send over some food and called Xie Guilan to join him. Seeing that Cen Wu wasn’t going to the cafeteria, Lu Wang decided to have his family send him food as well.

Xie Guilan didn’t refuse, but after taking the food, he went silent.

Bitter melon.

Dandelion greens.

Some other bitter wild vegetable.

Then, Cen Wu handed him a cup of buckwheat tea.

“Don’t… don’t waste it,” Cen Wu reminded him. “You have to finish everything.”

Cool down, brother.

He had no idea how to stop Xie Guilan. In the original storyline, Xie Guilan had never been in a relationship, but that didn’t mean he was completely uninterested.

Seventeen or eighteen-year-old boys were impulsive. If he got led astray, things could spiral fast. So, Cen Wu figured he should tackle the problem at its root—help him keep his mind pure and his desires in check. At the very least, he needed to prevent anything irreversible from happening.

Xie Guilan: “…”

Xie Guilan was notoriously picky with food. Cen Wu knew all his preferences—he wouldn’t eat scallions, ginger, or garlic. He refused to eat eggplant with the skin on. He hated stir-fried bitter melon and would only eat it cold. He avoided green leafy vegetables unless they had been blanched first. He liked fish, but he absolutely hated fish bones.

Cen Wu specifically instructed the old butler to serve only cold bitter melon salad and to blanch the wild greens to remove their earthy taste.

Xie Guilan had no idea what Cen Wu was trying to do, but the Cen family chefs were top-tier—somehow, even a simple bitter melon salad was crisp and refreshing, with barely any bitterness left. It wasn’t unbearable to eat.

For several days in a row, Cen Wu brought him lunch.

That night, when Xie Guilan arrived at Blue Night for work, a group of waiters had gathered around the manager. Ji Changyu spotted him and raised an eyebrow, waving him over. “Old Xie! Good news!”

Blue Night usually didn’t provide meals for the night shift, but for some reason, the boss had a sudden change of heart—going forward, dinner would be included.

On top of that, the night shift now came with an extra 100-yuan bonus.

All in all, that meant several thousand yuan more per month. It was like the boss had completely lost his mind.

“I grabbed your meal for you,” Ji Changyu said, shaking the takeout box in his hand.

Xie Guilan opened it up—two meat dishes, one vegetable, a serving of rice, and a bowl of mung bean lily porridge.

Xie Guilan: “…”

At this point, just seeing anything green was starting to stress him out.

“I must have insane luck,” Ji Changyu mused, rubbing his chin. “Could it be that some rich lady has a secret crush on me?”

He was always skipping class and never went to school during the day, so he usually worked the day shift. But every once in a while, he’d have a sudden burst of motivation. This month, he planned to actually attend a few classes, so he had switched entirely to the night shift.

And on his very first night shift, all this good fortune landed in his lap. It was hard not to be suspicious.

Xie Guilan, with his dark, unreadable gaze, glanced at him briefly before silently lowering his head to eat.

Ji Changyu: “…”

Damn it.

What kind of disgusted look was that?

Between the sudden scholarship, free meals, a raise, and now dinner, Xie Guilan had no idea when his luck had turned around. It felt like, all of a sudden, the whole world had started favoring him.

---

Meanwhile, every performance that Zhou Wenqing and his group submitted had been rejected by Meng Liangping. In the end, they settled on The Phantom of the Opera.

Or rather, it was mostly Phantom, but they had mashed up scenes from Romeo and Juliet and The Butterfly Lovers into it—pure chaos.

Cen Wu had memorized the school rules by now, especially Rule #13: No romantic relationships.

He had fully expected the teachers to reject this performance too, yet surprisingly, both their homeroom teacher and the school approved it. The whole class got involved, voting and rehearsing, picking roles from classic works.

Even movie characters were allowed.

That was when Cen Wu spotted Yi Ping and… that one iconic character.

Cen Wu: “…”

This way, everyone in class would have a role, but since there were more boys than girls, some guys would have to play female characters.

Feeling a bit nervous, Cen Wu only hoped they’d assign him a role with no lines. Was there a mute character? He secretly voted for himself to play a mute.

Xie Guilan didn’t bother picking a role, and no one dared assign him one.

Xu Lingling really wanted him to play the Phantom, but when she met his cold, deep gaze, she lost all courage to ask.

She turned around, hoping to get help from the class president and the sports committee member, only to find that both had vanished.

Xu Lingling: “…”

Damn men. Not a single one is reliable.

Left with no choice, she braced herself and stepped forward. But before she could even say a word, Xie Guilan cut her off with an icy, “Not doing it.”

Xu Lingling: “…”

Yeah, well, you’re no good either.

That night, Xie Guilan didn’t go to Blue Night; instead, he stayed at school for evening study. By dinnertime, the class still hadn’t finalized the cast.

The sports committee member nudged Zhang Yuanzhou and waggled his eyebrows. “Wanna go watch a movie after dinner?”

He was He Yao, the only athlete in Class 3—a swimmer.

“What movie?” Zhang Yuanzhou hadn’t even responded yet when Lu Wang perked up. “I wanna watch too.”

“Uh…” He Yao hesitated for a second but then shrugged. “Sure, my roommate’s coming too. The more, the merrier.”

If Lu Wang was going, he’d definitely drag Cen Wu along.

Cen Wu wasn’t too eager—he wasn’t familiar with He Yao, and just the thought of meeting his roommate made his social anxiety flare up.

But after some hesitation, he turned to Xie Guilan and softly asked, “Do you… do you wanna come too?”

He thought it might be good for Xie Guilan to interact with his classmates a little more. It couldn’t hurt. In the original timeline, the truth about his identity didn’t come out until right before the college entrance exams.

Cen Wu didn’t want to wait that long. He was planning to send the paternity test results to Cen Junshan and Guan Xue early, at the right moment.

Who knew? He might even leave this place before senior year ended. And when that happened, Xie Guilan would be left alone again.

He had expected Xie Guilan to refuse, but instead, Xie Guilan lowered his gaze slightly and said, “Okay.”

After dinner—

He Yao led the way in a daze.

The sky must be falling. Not only was Cen Wu coming, but Xie Guilan was too?

No, wait—Xie Guilan actually looked at him?

Back in freshman year, they had been in the same class, and Xie Guilan had never spared him a single glance!

He Yao led them to an empty classroom in the far corner of the third floor. When they arrived, a few guys were already there—seven or eight boys had pulled the curtains shut and were huddled in the back, watching something. A few others had dragged chairs over because there wasn’t enough space.

Cen Wu couldn’t shake the weird feeling creeping up his spine.

He Yao pulled out his phone and propped it up on the desk.

No one dared sit next to Xie Guilan, so he ended up in the innermost seat. Cen Wu sat beside him, with Lu Wang on his other side.

When the movie started, Cen Wu froze.

Cen Wu: “…”

Cen Wu: ???

His pale ears instantly started burning.

No way. No one told him it was that kind of movie.

His arm was touching Xie Guilan’s, and suddenly, he felt incredibly awkward.

“I… I didn’t know,” Cen Wu whispered, his face flushed. He tugged at Xie Guilan’s wrist in the dark and whispered even softer, “If you… if you want to leave, we can go now.”

The classroom was dim, though the curtains didn’t block out all the moonlight. In the faint glow, everyone’s faces were blurred—except for Cen Wu’s eyes, which remained bright and glistening.

Xie Guilan didn’t react, just said coldly, “I’m going to sleep.”

Cen Wu shut his mouth.

He had always been openly gay, so he didn’t think much of it, but He Yao’s roommate had to take a trip to the restroom.

Cen Wu’s ears turned slightly red, his toes curling against the floor in secondhand embarrassment.

He had been too busy filming in his past life and barely spent time in school, let alone interacted much with his classmates.

This was… way too open.

Cen Wu instinctively moved closer to Xie Guilan. In this chaotic world, Xie Guilan was the only person who seemed normal enough to make him feel at ease.

Xie Guilan had his eyes closed, but the hushed, ambiguous sounds in the classroom made it clear that he wasn’t actually asleep. More than that, he could feel Cen Wu inching closer to him bit by bit.

Eventually, Cen Wu leaned his whole body against Xie Guilan’s shoulder. His soft, fluffy black hair brushed against Xie Guilan’s neck, like a cat’s tail flicking against him.

They only had about half an hour before they had to leave. Fortunately, the movie was short. When it ended, Zhang Yuanzhou put on a horror film.

Xie Guilan remained completely indifferent, showing none of the usual reactions one would expect from a high school boy.

Cen Wu couldn’t help glancing at him. Their school uniform pants were loose, but in this sitting posture, any reaction should still be noticeable.

Somehow, Xie Guilan picked up on his gaze. His long eyelashes were icy cold as he said, completely unfazed, “Guess it’s broken.”

Cen Wu: “…”

Cen Wu: “???”

Is that even something that can break?!

For a moment, Cen Wu wondered if he had given Xie Guilan too much bitter melon to eat, lowering his body heat too much—but logically, that shouldn’t be possible.

Yet, looking at Xie Guilan’s ever-calm, ascetic-like demeanor, Cen Wu couldn’t help but feel a little guilty.

Maybe he’d been too hasty.

Cen Wu pursed his lips, wanting to say something but not knowing how to.

Instead, he turned his focus back to the movie. He raised his hand to cover his eyes, but every now and then, he’d peek through his fingers. The moment he sensed a scary scene coming, he quickly closed the gap.

Next to him, Lu Wang kept gasping dramatically, his hissing sounds even more unsettling than the movie itself. Instinctively, Cen Wu scooted even closer to Xie Guilan.

His arm pressed against Xie Guilan’s, leaving Xie Guilan no choice but to lift it slightly. As a result, Cen Wu practically ended up leaning in his arms.

When Xie Guilan lowered his head, his lips were just inches from the top of Cen Wu’s head.

Suddenly, He Yao threw himself at Zhang Yuanzhou and Lu Wang, trying to startle them. In the resulting chaos, Cen Wu was knocked straight into Xie Guilan’s chest.

He looked up, his fingers parting slightly, revealing a pair of misty, trembling eyes. His lashes fluttered as he awkwardly muttered, “S-Sorry.”

Xie Guilan lowered his gaze. “You’re scared, but you still keep watching.”

Cen Wu stubbornly defended himself. “It’s… it’s not that bad.”

But his body remained tightly pressed against Xie Guilan’s warmth, finding comfort in his heat.

After talking to Xie Guilan, Cen Wu was about to turn away when the screen suddenly flickered. He hadn’t managed to close the gap between his fingers in time—before he could react, a slender, calloused hand covered his eyes.

Everything went dark.

Cen Wu had a small face, and Xie Guilan’s hand nearly covered it entirely, even pressing against his nose. Feeling a bit suffocated, Cen Wu wrinkled his nose in discomfort.

Xie Guilan’s fingertips were slightly rough, the calluses brushing against Cen Wu’s soft cheek as he gave it a light squeeze.

Cen Wu didn’t dare protest, letting Xie Guilan pinch his face as he pleased. Only when Xie Guilan finally let go did he breathe a sigh of relief, rubbing his sore cheek.

After leaving the classroom, Zhang Yuanzhou and the others went to buy drinks at the school store, while Cen Wu, Xie Guilan, and Lu Wang headed back to their classroom.

Lu Wang pouted. “That was lame. I’m never watching another one.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Cen Wu nodded along in agreement.

The night sky was completely dark, but the entire school building was lit up. There were still students playing basketball on the field. The atmosphere wasn’t as indulgent and chaotic as a night out in the city—it was just warm and youthful.

Cen Wu walked ahead, his school uniform catching the night breeze, carrying a boyish energy.

Xie Guilan pressed his Adam’s apple lightly. He could still recall the feeling of Cen Wu stepping on his throat, grinding into it.

Ignoring the lingering pain, this was just another ordinary night in his high school life.

Xie Guilan let out a quiet scoff. Cen Wu’s affection was like the night wind—fleeting, making him feel favored one moment and discarded the next.

The moment Cen Wu got bored, he’d end up just like Song Lingwei.

Cen Wu was still rattled by Xie Guilan’s casual “Guess it’s broken.”

He stopped bringing Xie Guilan food after that.

But the next morning, he hesitantly handed Xie Guilan a thermos.

Xie Guilan paused. “What’s this?”

The thermos was deep, and the dark liquid inside made it hard to see what was soaked in it.

“G-Goji berries,” Cen Wu admitted.

He had secretly grabbed some from the old housekeeper’s stash of health teas, thinking it might help Xie Guilan recover.

Xie Guilan: “…”

From ahead, Zhang Yuanzhou overheard and immediately turned around, grinning. “Old Hou puts goji berries in his thermos too.”

Hou Zhong, their strict teacher, was well-known for his stern demeanor.

Apparently, back in their first year, a student had taken his younger brother to a urology clinic for a minor procedure—only to bump into Hou Zhong there, also seeking treatment.

Long story short, kidney deficiency.

And since Hou Zhong was especially tough on students from poorer backgrounds, his reputation only grew harsher. Soon, even the school forum started calling him “Kidney Hou.”

“Xie bro, are you—” Zhang Yuanzhou was about to make a joke but stopped short when he met Xie Guilan’s icy, unreadable gaze.

He immediately shut his mouth and huddled over his desk in fear.

No one knew if Xie Guilan’s kidneys were weak.

But his fists sure didn’t seem weak.

Xie Guilan hadn’t expected Cen Wu to take his offhand remark seriously. He stared at the floating goji berries for a while before finally speaking in his usual blank tone.

“Young master, is this really that important to you?”

He had phrased it so bluntly, expecting Cen Wu to feel embarrassed and back off.

But Cen Wu nodded matter-of-factly. “O-Of course… it’s important..”

What if he really had messed him up somehow?

It didn’t seem likely, but it wasn’t entirely impossible. And if that were the case, wouldn’t that be his fault?

Xie Guilan: “…”

He met Cen Wu’s eager gaze and couldn’t help grinding his teeth. He never expected Cen Wu to be this shameless.

So bold—was he really that desperate to seduce him?